Black Sheep (27 page)

‘Thank God,’ I thought, my blood running cold. ‘Thank God what happened happened – or it would have been me taking Lockjaw’s life.’ I shook my head. No way. I
had to stop myself from thinking about it in case I started mashing things up. The taxi stopped.

“OK, Dwayne,” said Victoria, “let’s get them inside.”

Effie stumbled to the front door with Victoria and I carried Misha up the stairs to Vee’s room.

“Listen, Vee, call me later, yeah, as soon as Misha wakes up. I need to know that she’s OK.”

“Sure, no problem...” Then Victoria shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. “Do you think they’ll find whoever stabbed Lawrence?”

I looked away. “I don’t know, man, depends, innit? No one ain’t gonna talk to the police so it could be kinda hard, still... I’m just sorry you guys had to be there when
it all happened.”

“Well, it’s always interesting to see how the other side lives...”

“Nah, I don’t want Misha thinking that this is what it’s always like, that this is all it’s about. I just wanted to share something, my music, with her... but I guess it
flopped, innit...”

“Yeah, I guess it did.”

We were both quiet.

“You’d better get going. Will you be OK to get home, all the way back to South London?”

“Yeah, I’ll just catch the night bus, innit.”

“OK, well, watch your back...”

“Yeah, you too. And listen, Vee, look after Misha for me, yeah? And don’t send her home until she’s feeling better.”

“Of course I won’t, what do you take me for?” Victoria laughed. “The last thing I want is Counsellor Dina Reynolds looking into my drink and drug habit!”

The night air was cold around my ears as I ran down the steps outside Victoria’s house. With each step, I could feel the knife banging against my body, heavy inside my
jacket pocket. Heavy, stained with blood. A silent witness against me.

I knew what I had to do.

As I walked past the black wheelie bin outside Victoria’s house, I carefully pulled out the knife and threw it into the bin.

Gone.

Disappeared.

In a few hours, the rubbish men would come and dump all the black bin bags, full up with all kinds of posh leftovers, into their smelly trucks and drive them away, never to be seen again.

There was no need to tell anyone, no need to bring any trouble home. Jukkie would thank me for getting rid of the evidence.

It was gone now.

My heart lifted as I walked back towards Ladbroke Grove.

But when I turned back to look at the house one last time, I saw the curtains in one of the upstairs windows twitch.

I turned and walked quickly away from that house. I didn’t look back again.

MISHA

“Victoria!”

We were woken by a fierce pounding at the door to Victoria’s bedroom.

“What the...” Victoria sat bolt upright, her weave sticking out around her face, her eyes smudged black with stale mascara.

But before she could get out of bed, Paul, her elder brother, had crashed her bedroom door open and charged in, wearing just a pair of tracksuit bottoms.

“Get out, Paul!” Victoria screamed. “Or I’m telling Mummy!”

Paul ignored her and pointed his finger in her face. “What have you done with my Nintendo DS?”

“I’m not telling you.”

“What?” He grabbed her wrist and dragged her off her bed and on to the floor. “Oh yes you are! Where is it?”

“I’m not telling you, all right? I told you I’d get you back for breaking my iPod and I did! Now get the hell out of my room!”

“Arghh! You little..!” Paul roared, twisting Victoria’s arm. “You’d better get me my DS back, in one piece, in the next hour, d’you hear me? Or you’ll
regret the day you were born, I swear!”

He shoved her away from him onto the floor and slammed the door behind him, leaving Victoria heaving on the floor and Effie and I staring, hearts beating, mouths dry.

It was a rude awakening.

I let out a shuddering sigh. “Your brothers, Vee, wow...”

“Tell me about it.”

“Makes me glad I’ve only got sisters...” Effie rubbed her eyes and turned over, wincing.

“Ughhh...” Victoria fell back onto her pillows, her hands over her eyes. “Well, that was the night from Hell.”

“Oh, God, don’t,” I giggled, covering my face with the duvet cover. “Don’t even go there – I can hardly remember anything. I must have been off my head! Did I
throw up? Make a complete fool of myself? I seriously can’t remember anything that happened after Dwayne’s performance!” I shook my head, smiling, wondering at my bout of minor
amnesia.

The other two looked at me, eyes wide, not saying anything. Then they looked at each other and shifted under the bedclothes.

“What?” I saw the look that passed between them and frowned. “What? Was I really that bad?”

Effie looked away, tears welling in her eyes. Victoria looked searchingly into my face. “Lawrence was stabbed last night, Misha.”

“What?” I gasped, gazing at Victoria, uncomprehending. “Vee, what are you talking about?”

“For God’s sake, Misha, you can’t tell me you don’t remember!”

“I don’t, Vee, honestly!” I shook my head, my mind clouding, crowded with sounds, feelings, emotions, images that didn’t make any sense. “Lawrence... stabbed? By
whom? Is he OK? Effie?” I put my hand out to touch Effie’s arm. “Did you see it? Was he with you?”

Effie did not look my way. “Yeah,” she said shortly, wiping her face. “Yeah, he was with me... Listen, Vee, I’d really like to get home. I need to be in my own space,
clear my head – and find out what happened to Lawrence. We left in such a hurry last night...” She faltered then, twisting the covers between her fingers. “I don’t even know
whether he’s dead or alive.”

“Oh my God, Effie, I’m so sorry...” I was distraught. I reached out to hug Effie but she was already up and out of bed, searching through the piles of clothes on the floor for
her jeans, looking for her bag.

“Do you think your driver will be able to take me home?”

“Of course, darling, of course. I’ll just go and tell Mummy. Why don’t you stay and take a shower, have some breakfast?”

But Effie just shook her head. “I just really want to get home, Vee. Sorry...”

“Of course, Effie, it’s not a problem – after what you’ve been through, who can blame you?”

“I’ll go home with Effie then, if that’s all right.” I looked worriedly over at Effie as she got off the bed and started picking her clothes up off the floor.

“Fine,” Victoria shrugged, tying the sash of her white silk dressing gown. “I’ll go and let him know.”

We began to get our things together. But I was puzzled. The silence between us was so thick, you could have cut it with a knife. I kept glancing at Effie. I expected her to be shocked, scared,
traumatised – I mean, how often do you see your boyfriend get stabbed right in front of you? But what I didn’t understand was this, the cold shoulder. It was as if Effie couldn’t
even bear to look at me.

“Effie,” I said tentatively, “have I done something wrong? Did something happen last night, while I was out of it?”

Effie sighed as she turned away and pulled on her leather jacket. “No, Misha,” she said pointedly, “
you
did nothing wrong. Let’s just say that some people are
not what they seem...”

“Some people? Who, Effie? What are you talking about?” I reached out to grab Effie by her sleeve. “Effie, tell me what’s going on!”

Effie jerked her arm away and spun round to look me in the eye. “It was Dwayne, Misha!” she said, her lip curling, tears standing in her eyes. “Dwayne was the one who stabbed
Lawrence.”

I stepped backwards, reeling, as if she had slapped me in the face. “No, Effie...” I breathed. “Y-you you’ve got it wrong,” I stammered, shaking my head.
“D-Dwayne, he would never...”

“He would never
what
, Misha?” Effie’s voice had a hardened edge to it and she glared at me with a new fierceness. “He would never what? You don’t honestly
think you know anything about him, do you? After what we saw last night?”

“So he’s from a rough side of town... fair enough. That doesn’t mean that he would ever stab anyone, or hurt anyone!”

Then Effie came up close to me, so close that I could see the tiny hairs of her eyebrows beginning to grow back, the clumps of dried mascara that still clung to her lashes, the red lines that
criss-crossed her eyeballs.

“I saw him, Misha,” she hissed. “I saw him with the knife!”

I froze.

“Yes, that’s right, your Romeo was carrying a knife when we left the club and, after he dropped us home, I saw him throw it into the bin outside this house!”

“I don’t believe you...” I whispered. “No... no way.”

“I’m telling you, I saw him with my own eyes, Misha! Wake up! This isn’t some fantasy! Lawrence was stabbed last night. He was bleeding all over the place. Look!” And she
snatched my red dress from the floor and held up the bloodstain for me to see. “That is Lawrence’s
blood
! He could be dead right now, for all we know!”

Shock seeped through my brain, rendering me speechless, unseeing. I sank to a crouch on the floor and my eyes glazed over with tears as I stared at the red dress with the dark patch of blood on
the left side. Lawrence’s blood. Dwayne? No, it was too hard to get to grips with. There had to have been some mistake.

“Let’s find the knife then,” I whispered suddenly, looking up at Effie. “You said he put it in the bin outside? Well, let’s go and get it.”

In moments, I was downstairs, outside the front door, down the stone steps, looking around for the wheelie bin. I saw it facing the pavement and dashed towards it, wrenching the lid open.

Empty.

I groaned. The rubbish collectors had been and gone.

Now there was only one way to find out the truth.

“Come on, Effie,” I muttered as I started up the stairs again. “Let’s get our stuff and see where that driver is; I’ve got to pay someone a visit.”

DWAYNE

I was proper cussing myself all the way home.

‘I should have listened to Tony, man. I should have stayed away. What kind of a Muslim goes raving anyway? I should never have taken Misha there – just look at what almost happened
to her! After I promised to look after her and ting.’ I shook my head. ‘Now the whole situation is mash-up. Larkside man will be on our case again – and they saw me! They saw me
with Trigger and Jukkie! Ain’t no way I’m going to be able to stay out of the beef now. And what about Lockjaw? What if he doesn’t make it? And who was behind the curtain at
Vic’s house? What did they see?’

Too many questions. Just too many questions.

I stayed off school and cotched at Tony’s. I couldn’t risk bumping into Leon or any of those boys. The truth was, I didn’t know how the hell I was going to leave my estate
again, not without packing. Not without something to protect myself. I had never been one of dem Youngers who liked to shoot people up, just for the fun of it, just to make a point. For me, it was
about the Ps at the end of the day. And if I could make money without stepping on any toes, I was happy.

Tony had offered me a gun ages ago but times had changed. No way Tony would give me a piece now. He’d moved past that mentality, big time.

“You need to pray, bro,” he kept saying. “You did wrong. You need to pray for forgiveness and start again. While you’re still alive, there’s always a way to start
again.”

I looked at him like he was crazy. Did he really think that praying was going to solve my problems? I needed a solution. I needed a miracle.

‘Ain’t that what God does?’

‘What’s that?’

‘Work miracles?’

‘Yeah, I guess so...’

‘Then you best start praying for a miracle then, innit?’

I went outside that afternoon. I wore an old hoodie that I hadn’t worn for time and pulled the hood right up. I wore a pair of old trainers and took a bag with me, just in
case. I needed to buy some credit from the shop coz I needed to speak to Misha. Victoria had already told me that she had woken up feeling better but I still hadn’t had the chance to call her
and hear her voice.